The Ad Nauseum Marketing of Von Dutch

The Von Dutch caps have made it to convenience stores in New Jersey and the "Von Sucks" variant is as common as the original. Surely, it must be almost over, thank God: the $42 shirts and $145 jeans and $25 thongs at the Von Dutch Original boutiques in Hollywood or Las Vegas, and the sweat bands at Urban Outfitters across the land and the Converse All Stars stamped with the logo and the rest of the strip mining of the imagery created by an eccentric automobile painter, Von Dutch.

Born in 1929 as Kenneth Howard, Von Dutch was the man who brought pin-striping as a high art from motorcycles to automobile bodies. He took his nickname from his stubbornness. "Stubborn as a Dutchman" is a by now quaint ethnic slur. But beyond stubborn, Von Dutch became insufferable. He was the quintessential cliché romantic artist, selfish inside his own vision, alienating family, friends and customers alike. Part romantic, part beatnik, part general pain in the ass, he was a racist and prima donna, he managed to irritate almost everyone who admired him -- and in the best esthetic mode, somehow made them admire him more in the process.